"For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). One cannot be GOD-conscious and devil-conscious at the same time. Nor does light and darkness co-exist in the same room. The light swallows up the darkness, and thereafter there is only light.
God does not co-exist with evil. Evil is not equal with Him, it is subservient to Him. He controls all of its interplay, and uses the negative realm for His purpose and plan. When the desired results have been obtained, the means to the end cease to exist.
Religious theology has two opposite or contrasting realms, heaven and hell. However, the Scriptures do not use this phraseology, though they often speak of heaven and earth. "The heavens are higher than the earth." -(Isaiah 55:9). And again, "The heaven for height, and the earth for depth. " (Proverbs 25:3). "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Corinthians 15:49).
Jesus did not come to lead us from hell to heaven, He came to lead us from all this earthy, carnal realm, to the Father. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6). Thus, rather than speaking of geographical locations, we can readily say of both heaven and hell, that they are "a state, or a condition of being."
Much of religious Babylon's theology provides a foundation for the enemy to build upon, to activate fear-- fear of hell, fear of an angry God, fear of His judgments, fear of loss and pain. You name it, fear works in every realm that touches our daily life. But, "perfect love casteth out all fear." (1 John 4:18). The more He is REVEALED TO US IN TRUTH, the more we understand that all of His actions are motivated by love, and in our best interests. Thus, while the testing, OVERCOMING PROCESSES, might be hard on the flesh, yet we need not fear them, but commit our way unto the Lord, and trust Him for the ultimate victory.
The fiery trial might be severe, and the enemy whisper doubts and fears, so we tremble and cry out for help. Then the Spirit speaks, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness. " (Isaiah 41:10), and immediately He has removed the foundation that the enemy tried to build upon. He strips him of his cruel weapon of fear. How can we fear, when the Lord speaks "FEAR NOT?" His sweet presence casts out all fear, and the enemy is rendered powerless-- he is cast into a bottomless pit!
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound (well-balanced) mind." (2 Tim. 1:7).
How the adversary has usurped control over man, ruling with fear. Any teaching that rules through fear, any action that is motivated by fear, is of the negative realm. Fear and condemnation go hand in hand, and how religious Babylon has used these negatives to establish its rule and control.
The key of death was also taken away from the enemy. There are those "who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:15). With death as the final payment for their servitude, no wonder people were filled with fear. Death was the enemy's final stroke. Man was beguiled into sin, and "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1:15). Now we see in Christ a glorious turn of events. He took control of the situation, and declares, "Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. amen; AND HAVE THE KEYS OF HELL AND OF DEATH." (Revelation 1:17-18).
Who NOW has the key to hell? Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Who NOW has the key of death? Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Who NOW has the key to the bottomless pit? Christ does!
Death, hell, the devil-- all are fully in His control, to work out His sovereign purpose. There might appear to be secondary causes, and one might feel like Jacob, when he said, '"All these things are against me." (Genesis 42:36). But when our eye is single to Christ, we can say with Joseph, "As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good." (Genesis 50:20).
How totally, in Himself, Jesus overcame the world, Satan, and even death-- because He could say of Satan, "he hath nothing in me." (John 14:30). He could lay down His life, enter into the throes of death and conquer, because there was nothing in Him for death to build on-- there was no basis for corruption to set in. Thus, "He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption." (Acts 13:37). He was sinless, without blemish, without spot, and therefore could conquer death-- for there was nothing within Him to which death could lay claim. Where there is no sin, there can be no consequence of sin-- there can be no holding one in the land of the shadow of death.
Now, obviously, the enemy is not anxious to come into a state or condition of inactivity, yet anyone who is becoming fully purified within is no longer territory where he can work-- there is nothing to build on. It is a vital threat to his kingdom when salvation, deliverance, cleansing comes to a man.
"And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? and he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they (the devils) besought Him that He would not command them to go out INTO THE DEEP." (Luke 8:30-31).
Deep-- the Greek word is "abussos" meaning, the abyss, and translated twice as "deep" and seven times as "bottomless pit." The devils did not want to be cast into this state where they could no longer work their deviltry. So the Lord allowed them to enter into a herd of swine, where they continued their work of destruction, causing the swine to run violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. The Lord knew that it was not yet time for these devils to go into the abyss, so He allowed them to continue to kill and destroy, but not in the man He delivered.
So mighty is our God, so totally in control, that He can MAKE INACTIVE all negative forces as He wills. Or, He can use them in His interplay of good and evil, to accomplish His purpose. THE KEY OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT IS IN HIS HAND! He can open or close as He wills. Even Paul came into this realm of victory, so that he could say, "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Corinthians 5:5).
Satan is a controlled servant, doing no more than what the Lord allows. This is vividly illustrated in the life of Job, when "The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thy hand." (Job 1:12). And so the Destroyer went to work, wiping out all of Job's possessions, but he could not touch Job until God said so, and when permission was given, still the restriction was there-- "but save his life." (Job 2:6). God sets the boundaries, controlling the interplay, and working all things together into good. What a mighty God we serve!
Or, He can allow the beast to "ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition ( destruction)." (Revelation 17:8). When there is a purpose to be wrought, using the negative in that working, this "beast" is allowed to come out of the pit, and do its thing. But even so, in due time it must "go into perdition." For ultimately all evil shall self-destruct!
Another look at the word "abussos," literally, abyss.
There is a rule in the Greek that when the letter "a" is placed before a word, it usually changes its meaning to just the opposite. For example, when the letter "a" is placed in front of the Greek word for FAITH, which is "pistos," you then have the word "apistos" which literally means: unbelieving, or faithless. It might also be added that unbelief is faith in the negative, rather than in the positive. You doubt God, and place your faith in the negative. While in the positive, you have no confidence in the evil, but you trust and believe in God. There be many unbelievers in the world, but we are encouraged to "Have faith in God." (Mark 11:22).
Now, it is very interesting that minus the letter "a" you have the Greek word "bussos." This is an entirely different word, it is not the opposite of abyss; yet it blends perfectly with this truth we are sharing. "Bussos" literally means: FINE LINEN. How precious! For truly, the very opposite of the bottomless pit, i.e. having nothing positive to build on and thus rendered inactive, is this surest of all foundations. "Fine linen is the righteousness of the saints." (Revelation 19:8).
Here is a positive foundation for building, when all is RIGHTEOUS. "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and loving-kindness and truth go before Your face." (Psalm 89:14, Amplified).
"Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness." (Proverbs 25:5). Purging out all wickedness, self's rebellion, the minding of the flesh, etc. and you find that His throne is established in righteousness within. It becomes a solid foundation for the unbuilding of His life. And, it becomes an arena wherein evil cannot operate-- thus it can be said that righteousness becomes "a bottomless pit" to evil. And they who are clothed with His righteousness likewise become untouchable by evil, and hence, a restraining force to all evil.
Satan tries to build on an illusion, a lie, a half -truth, and therefore it cannot stand. He "abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 4:44). But now it is written, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." (Isaiah 28: 17).
Truth needs no defense-- IT IS! And when truth comes on the scene, all the lies, illusions, etc. shall be revealed for what they are, and shall be wiped out, dissipated by the truth. Judgment shall literally "pull out the rug from under evil," and there will be no place for it to stand. This is the triumph of Calvary! This is the victory of our Redeemer! He will bring all creation into the realm of His holiness-- cleansed, purged, clothed with His righteousness, and then Satan will be totally down-idled, made inactive, for the purpose of using evil will be finished, and holiness remains.
"If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of God." (1 John 2:29). Fully born of God, becoming a new creation in Christ, these become part of the foundation upon which His kingdom is built, with Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone. Furthermore, since there is nothing within them whereon the enemy can build, nothing corrupt that he can cause to spread and work its destruction, these PURE ONES actually become a RESTRAINING FORCE to the righteousness, all of its activity will cease to exist.
"And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (Revelation 19:14). Thus our Lord leads them forth to further the restoration, to completely overthrow all of Satan's kingdom, that His glory might fill all the earth. One does not fight evil with evil-- but we shall "overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21).
May it truly be said of us, "The prince of this world cometh, and HATH NOTHING IN ME." Because from every avenue of our being we can say, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: AND ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME, bless His holy name." (Psalm 103:1). When all that is WITHIN US can bless the Lord, magnify Him, be found in His holiness-- then eternal victory is ours!
Though there may be times in the outworking of His purpose that "Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations..." (Revelation 20:7-8), yet even NOW Christ holds the KEY to the bottomless pit, and the restraints are on-- the adversary can do no more than allowed, and the end of all evil activity has been decreed. "The lake of fire and brimstone" shall effectually end all negation, and our Redeemer shall "make all things new."
________________________________________________________
